Can you chug a beer while doing a headstand? If you can, I'm kind of impressed. But please don't perform a frat-house party trick in front of co-workers.
A wrongful-termination lawsuit brought by a former Netflix vice president features this and other ill-advised stunts and conversations that belong in a what-not-to-do manual. Kevin Baillie says he was fired as the streaming giant's head of studios after an executive retreat where he talked openly about taking ketamine to treat depression, then drank a pint of Guinness while standing on his head.
He contends the retreat centered on vulnerability and trust, so it was unfair for Netflix to hold his unfiltered behavior against him. At minimum, Baillie argues, he should have received $825,000 to $1.1 million in severance pay, based on company precedent.
Maybe you don't need me to tell you that upside-down stout guzzling and rhapsodizing about drug use are bad ideas when you're with colleagues. But to fixate on the juicy details of this wild workplace lawsuit is to miss the point, especially when we have only one side of the story. Netflix declined to comment.
Instead of trying to referee the legal arguments, let's consider a few big-picture career lessons we can all take away from this case.
Don't overshare
Call me a broken record, but I have cautioned before that the movement to "bring your whole self to work" is a minefield. It is easy to overshare when you're trying to break taboos.
This applies to discussions about mental health, which have become more common -- and accepted -- in workplaces in recent years. It's one thing to share the broad contours of a personal struggle, so others don't feel alone. It's another to reveal a psychedelic-like treatment strategy that remains on the fringe of social acceptability.
Plenty of workplaces could use more empathy, but we don't have to spill everything -- and often shouldn't.
Baillie's complaint against Netflix says he first disclosed during a job interview that he underwent three rounds of medically supervised ketamine therapy to treat depression after the death of his mother. At a retreat more than a year later, he talked about this experience again after, not during, a session "designed to elicit candor and personal disclosure," according to the suit.
When sharing time is over, that's your cue to stop.
Your employer isn't your family or your friend
Baillie says he learned the inverted beer-drinking stunt from his ex-father-in-law, who sounds super cool and nonjudgmental. Don't assume your boss, peers or direct reports are the same.
The retreat at the center of the lawsuit took place at a company-owned ranch near Lake Tahoe with a well-stocked open bar, according to court filings. In such a setting, and perhaps especially in the entertainment industry, it could be tempting to feel like you were on a family vacation and let your guard down accordingly.
But corporate life is still corporate, even in artistic professions that give creative geniuses some leeway for antics. A lot of us have worked for employers that try to create family or party-like atmospheres in one way or another. We shouldn't fall for it. The reality is companies aren't in the business of unconditional love.
Or handshake agreements, for that matter.
Get it in writing
One key takeaway from Baillie's lawsuit against Netflix has nothing to do with drugs or alcohol.
His employment contract didn't spell out what he would be owed if he were terminated, according to the suit. The complaint states that Baillie relied on the word of an "interim" executive who "promised substantial severance protection and represented that it did not need to appear in Plaintiff's contract because it was a generally applicable company practice."
Nine to 12 months' pay was standard, Baillie says he was told. This is the basis of his contention that he is entitled to a severance payout between $825,000 and $1.1 million.
I can't vouch for his math or version of events, but the principle is the important thing. It is always risky to rely on an oral agreement for matters as weighty as salary and severance, and even more so when the person you're dealing with might not be in a position to honor it in the future.
"Everybody's excited in the beginning of a relationship, but you always have to plan for what's going to happen at the end," says labor attorney Kathlyn Perez, who isn't involved in the case.
There is plenty we don't know, and may never find out, about Baillie's separation from Netflix. (He declined to comment further.) But I'll bet you a pint of Guinness that getting a little more in writing, and sharing a little less out loud at work, would serve us all well.
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